Gabriela Mercer, 46, said she saw two campaign signs in the back of district director's Ruben Reyes' vehicle.

Mercer, who has a daughter serving in the Marines on her second tour in Afghanistan, said she had visited Grijalva's office to ask for information about his stance on the war.

As Reyes approached Mercer, he opened the back of his sports utility vehicle, where two campaign yard signs were visible, she said.

Mercer, who has volunteered for Republican congressional candidates McClung and Jesse Kelly (challenging Gabrielle Giffords-D), said when she asked why he had the signs, Reyes became defensive and eventually said he was going to "put them up".

Mercer said she found it "unbelievable" that a high-ranking staffer would steal a political opponent's signs.

Reyes said that when he got up that morning, he found McClung signs... lying in his yard. He picked them up, put them in his truck and later "discarded" the signs, Reyes said.

Asked why he told Mercer he was going to put the signs up instead of giving this version of the story, Reyes said it was a "spur of the moment" comment.

Shyaah! More like a bald-faced lie. But why split hairs?

It seems Grijalva has taken up sign-pilfering as a hobby, now that he finds himself locked in the toughest battle of his political career. According to a recent poll by Magellan Data and Mapping Strategies, it shows Grijalva and Republican challenger Ruth McClung in a statistical dead heat -- 40 percent to 38 percent with 13 percent still undecided, even though in Grijalva's district, there are nearly twice as many registered Democrats as there are Republicans.

"El Jefe" Grijalva's opponent, Ruth McClung, a solid conservative and real-life rocket scientist for a Tucson-based engineering company, proudly contrasts her people-up approach to governing, as opposed to Grijalva's top-down elitist vision, this way, "This is a race between two opposing philosophies: Grijalva's 'progressive' left wing philosophy, and my philosophy built on conservative values." McClung adds, "Like Thomas Jefferson, I believe a government big enough to supply you with everything you need, is a government big enough to take away everything that you have."

Amplifying the desperate situation that Grijalva faces for re-election, four Democratic sources from different parts of the country said that there is "new attention" being paid to a race that was long considered "in the bag". Another Democratic source familiar with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus said there are "whispers" about the Grijalva-McClung match-up "being a sleeper race".

"Grijalva made a major misstep in calling for a boycott of his own state [that cost the state millions of dollars in revenue]. He should win, though. But anything is possible this year, especially in Arizona where the Republicans and anti-incumbents are apparently very fired up," said the source.

Anything indeed -- including stealing your opponent's campaign signs.

Career politician Grijalva will have to wait until November 2nd to find out whether he'll get to keep his comfy Washington digs or whether he'll be packing his bags for the state he verbally trashed.

You can help Ruth McClung defeat the sticky-fingered, dirt bag Grijalva, by going to her web site at:

UPDATE: Gabriela Mercer, the conservative campaign volunteer who reported the theft of a couple Ruth McClung campaign signs by a Raul Grijalva staffer, now reports that she has had the back window of her Nissan sedan bashed in with a large river rock.

While eating dinner at a local Tucson restaurant, Gabriela Mercer was approached by her waiter and asked what kind of car she drove. When Mercer told the waiter what kind it was, the waiter responded, "I think someone just threw a rock through your window."

The Grijalva leftist goons didn't take long to retaliate against Mercer, and just like good jackbooted Marxists, they sent their message loud and clear.